Microsoft India Reorganizes All Its Startup Programs Under ‘Microsoft Ventures’

In a strategic move, Microsoft India has clubbed together its startup offerings under a single platform called Microsoft Ventures. The newly named Microsoft Ventures banner combines four programs – Seed Fund, BizSpark, Community, and Accelerator – into a single window of entry for the tech giant to engage with startups and entrepreneurs.

As ever, Microsoft Ventures aims to partner with established young startups, entrepreneurs, and businesses in the B2B space who desire to venture into global markets. Already, this program has worked with successful Indian tech startups such as Adepto.

Mukund Mohan, the CEO-in-residence at Microsoft Accelerator, will spearhead Microsoft Ventures in India. The company has also strengthened its initiative by bringing in the chief of Mentor Partners, Ravi Narayan, to lead the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator and its community evangelism program. Narayan is a serial entrepreneur and investor with strong experienced in mentoring and guiding entrepreneurs and startups.

The Redmond firm has not disclosed any financial details of the new move. The reorganization is in-line with Microsoft Ventures recent reshuffle in other nations too. Mukund says today:

Through this coordinated effort, we will now engage with entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey from ideation to maturity and support them with compelling offerings. Our community evangelism program will provide entrepreneurs easy access to technology and resources, so that they can focus on exploring ideas.

The accelerator will provide access to mentors and technical experts so that they can convert their ideas into products. The fund will offer seed investments to startups that demonstrate early business success. In all, through one focused effort we will provide the tools, resources, and expertise that start-ups need as they innovate, build and grow.

Also, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has given responsibility to Kattayil Rajinish Menon to drive broad community engagement linked with the BizSpark program for startups at other accelerators, incubators, and industry forums, as well as Microsoft customers and partners in India.

(Editing by Steven Millward)